62. Grease Love Story

A Love Relationship

The Grease love story is about a love relationship. Two people, played by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, fall madly in love. Both are head over heels in love with each other in an extraordinary way. Perhaps you've had a Grease love story kind of relationship with someone special too? Did you know that someone cares for each one of us in this spectacular kind of way! That someone is God Himself. From the very beginning, He cared for us and wanted us to have a loving relationship with Him too. So we can read in John 3:16, "God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son..."✞

Separated

In the film version of Grease, you might remember that they separate, seemingly forever after an initial romance and relationship on their summer holidays. So our second keyword is PARTED. But as their first love story relationship was severed, so was our natural relationship with God. The great barrier in our case was our sinful nature; those things we did even without thinking which offend God. We were all tarred with this same SIN brush. Write the words GOD and US on each side of the Gulf. We were separated because of it. Play the CD of "Summer Nights.") The lovers sang the song we've just heard while unknown to one another they were on different sides of the same college campus.✞

Reunited

At last, they are REUNITED. Their love is then rekindled. You know, even though our relationship with God is severed by sin, God has taken steps to reunite us. When Jesus died on the cross, he brought God and humans back to one another in a beautiful way. Do you ever long to know real peace in your life, of sins forgiven, and a lasting sense of God's presence with you? Open your heart and let Jesus come in now. He has promised to bless you and bring you back to a love story relationship with Him just like John and Olivia in Grease!✞

Jesus Love Relationship

Jesus' love relationship for a person is the most important one in your life. If someone stopped you in the street and announced that they could show you every event in your life, I wonder what your reaction would be. If your whole life came flashing up on a screen, I wonder what would stand out as the most important thing you had done? Maybe your support of a football team. Perhaps the motorbike you lovingly polished or maybe even a pop star you idolized. Or even a love relationship you had. Any of these THINGS could be your God. Are they worth it? Jesus said, "Do not store up riches for yourselves here on earth, where moths and rust destroy, and robbers break in and steal" in Matthew 6.19. (Cross out "Things" Heart.) If the essential part of your life is not a thing, then perhaps a Jesus love relationship is more important.✞

Friendship With God

Might this relationship be a very special boyfriend or girlfriend? A PERSON (fill in) But tell me how you feel when they let you down? (Cross out "A Person" Heart) We all have faults. None of us is perfect. So we can't place our faith in other people - no matter how good they may appear. I'm afraid this is not the answer if we're looking for a satisfying life. Christians believe a relationship with Jesus is the most meaningful relationship a person can have. It is a friendship with God Himself, a love relationship with him. Jesus paved the way for this when he died on the cross for you and me. (Draw in a cross) He wants each one of us today to put Him first in our lives and to live only for him. Your life will count because you have a love relationship with Jesus.✞

Jesus Light of the World

Jesus, the Light of the World, radiates into the Christian and shines his light on others. I suppose that every disco you go to these days has flashing color lights. Have you ever thought about what light does? (Draw in filament to the Light Bulb.) It seems to dispel darkness, and it shows you what is around you and where you are going. It helps you relax and calms your fear. When Robert Louis Stevenson was a boy in Edinburgh, he was fascinated by light, particularly by an older man who went around the streets with a ladder at dusk lighting up the street lamps. One day his parents overheard him say, "Look, look! There is a man out there PUNCHING HOLES IN THE DARKNESS." Jesus, the Light of the World, also punches holes in the darkness of our fear. Jesus, LIGHT OF THE WORLD (fill in) pours into our lives. (Also, you may tell the story of the blind man in John 9, as an illustration of the work of Jesus, like light).✞

Bread of Life

Most of us have probably eaten some bread today. Perhaps you had some toast for breakfast or a sandwich for lunch. The "Staff of Life" is such a valuable part of our diet. Jesus called himself the TRUE BREAD (fill in). He wants to become Jesus the Bread of Life, the "Staff of Life." During the Second World War, Brother Andrew, then one of six, lived in constant gnawing hunger in Holland under the Nazi occupation. His family was so desperate they dug up tulip bulbs and ate them like potatoes. His mother went hungry and eventually fell ill because she starved herself so that the others might have enough.✞

Jesus the Bread of Life

Jesus, the bread of life, sustains our Christian lives with his presence even through death, just like the resurrection plant. When at last the end of the Second World War came, Dutch people flooded out into the streets, rejoicing. "But I was not with them," Brother Andrew wrote. "I was running every step of the five miles to the Canadian encampment, where I was able to beg a small sack full of bread crusts. Bread! Quite literally, the bread of life! I brought it home to my family with shouts of `Food! Food! Food! As Mama gnawed the dry crusts, tears of gratefulness to God rolled down the deep lines in her cheeks!" Jesus, the bread of life, can give us the same satisfaction and joy when we trust in Him. (Also, you may tell the feeding of the five thousand story as an illustration of Jesus' work as the bread of life in John 6). During the reign of Queen Victoria, there was a fascination with death and dying much in the same way our generation is preoccupied with sex. Everyone then talked about death. They made elaborate preparations for it - it intrigued them. Today we shun and fear death, but Jesus didn't! He said that he was the LIFE (fill in) Resurrection and the Life. He had not only come to terms with death, but he had also conquered it. Cross out DEATH ()✞

Resurrection Plant

In the lush gardens of Florida, they grow and sell an extraordinary dead-looking variety of a fern called the "Resurrection Plant," which I have seen growing at the sides of the swampy Everglades. In its cellophane bag, the dry, dusty brown lump looks good for nothing except the garbage pail, but when placed in a bowl of water, a miracle takes place. From the dry brown clump uncurls the most delicate and beautiful ferny green leaves. It will stay dry and dead for years, but with nourishment springs anew with lush green foliage. In the same way, those who trust the Lord Jesus can be sure that from the dust of death, they will as surely spring to vibrant resurrection life. (Also, you may tell the story of the raising of Lazarus as an illustration of the resurrection Jesus promises from John 11.)✞

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